Baroque violinist - Artistic Director - Teacher

“Cunningham on the violin was masterful, elegant, and compelling. She is one of the finest violinists in the country, and as a Seattle native, artist-in-residence at UW, and founder of the Whidbey Island Music Festival, she has a tremendous impact on the quality of music in our area.” – Sharon Cumberland, Seattle Gay News

Baroque violinist Tekla Cunningham delights in bringing music of the baroque, classical and romantic eras to life with vivid and expressive historically informed performances. Her new recording Stylus Phantasticus with Pacific MusicWorks is earning critical praise for its “tender expressivity”, “dramatic flair and dark wit”, “songlike expressivity” and “Terpsichorean flair”. In an album lauded for “vocal plushness and “vibrant lyricism”, Tekla is described as “a marvel on her Italian instrument, an endlessly songful bird”. Early Music America describes the recording as “played with verve, the music presented here reaffirms the old notion that instrumental music can have the flair of any theatrical spectacle. … a stellar vessel for the boldest showmanship.” Her concert performances have been described as "ravishingly beautiful" and "stellar". “Enough can't be said for Tekla Cunningham, who conducts with head, eyes, and even eyebrows as she plays. She is a consummate musician whose flowing solos and musical gestures are a joy to watch.” 

 During the quarantine, Tekla tended to her sourdough starter, spent a lot of time on zoom, taught baking classes online to raise funds for musical organizations across America, played concerts for video cameras and graduated from a yoga teacher training course at Seattle Yoga Arts. She now offers yoga classes for musicians on zoom. For well over a year, Tekla has been playing the Brahms violin sonatas weekly with pianist Sheila Weidendorf, and their project “Between Heaven and Earth: A Year with Brahms” is now emerging as a concert program with a focus on 19th century performance practices. 

 She is co-artistic director and concertmaster of Pacific MusicWorks (with Stephen Stubbs and Henry Lebedinsky), and artist-in-residence at the University of Washington where her students are a source of inspiration and joy. She founded and directs the Whidbey Island Music Festival, now entering its nineteenth season, producing and presenting vibrant period-instrument performances of music from Monteverdi to Beethoven and beyond. Her greatest musical love is music of the baroque and chamber music of all stripes, though she can’t seem to quit Johannes Brahms. 

 Tekla studied music at Peabody Conservatory, history and German literature at Johns Hopkins University, and then continued her musical studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria with Josef Sivo and Ortwin Ottmaier and earned a MM at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Ian Swenson. In addition to performances on the violin, Tekla enjoys playing viola and viola d’amore on occasion. Tekla plays on a Sanctus Seraphin violin made in Venice in 1746. 

She has appeared as concertmaster/leader or soloist with the American Bach Soloists, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, and Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Pacific MusicWorks, TENET and has played with Apollo’s Fire, Los Angeles Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and at the Berkeley, Carmel Bach, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Indianapolis, Oregon Bach, Vancouver Bach, Savannah, Bloomington Festivals and Valley of the Moon festivals, and on Early Music series’ from Music Before 1800, Boston Early Music Festival, Early Music Guild International Series, Montana Baroque, Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque, Houston Early Music, San Diego Early Music, San Francisco Early Music Society, Vancouver Early Music, Early Music of the Islands, Portland Baroque Orchestra.

Festival appearances include Carmel Bach Festival, San Louis Obispo Mozart Festival, Vancouver Bach Festival, Indianapolis Baroque Festival, Bloomington Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Savannah Festival, Valley of the Moon Festival, Berkeley Early Music Festival.